SOC 2 is a voluntary cybersecurity compliance certification and an auditing method developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) in 2010 to ensure that a business is managing its data and customer's data correctly.
The framework ensures that companies are handling customer data correctly that is stored in the cloud and how it stores its own data.
What is needed for a SOC 2 certification to be completed?
The standard is based on the following Trust Services Criteria:
Security: protecting information from unauthorised access
Availability: ensuring employees and clients can rely on your systems to perform their work
Processing integrity: verifying that company systems operate as intended
Confidentiality: protecting confidential information by limiting its access storage, and use
Privacy: safeguarding sensitive personal information against unauthorised users
During a SOC 2 audit, an external auditor will assess a business's security standing against the trust criteria services listed (TSC).
Each TSC has specific prerequisites that need to be met. The 'Security' TSC is a mandatory component of a SOC 2 audit, while the remaining TSCs are elective.
Compared to some more rigid security frameworks, such as ISO 27001 and PCI DSS this isn’t the case with SOC 2.
After the independent auditor has completed the audit, they will write a report about how well the company’s systems and processes comply with SOC 2 and this may determine how likely or unlikely a company is susceptible to a data breach or attack.
SOC Type 1 and SOC Type 2 - What’s the difference?
There are two types of SOC reports:
- SOC 2 Type I reports evaluate a company’s controls at a single point in time. It answers the question: are the security controls designed properly?
- SOC 2 Type II reports assess how those controls function, generally over 3-12 months. It answers the question: do the security controls a company has in place function as intended?
Of the two reports a Type I report can be quicker to achieve, whereas Type II reporting offers greater assurances to your customers and their data security.
Who needs a SOC 2 report?
Most service companies that store, process or transmit any kind of sensitive data, that is at risk of security and data breaches, they’ll likely need to be SOC 2 compliant.
How can OnSecurity help you achieve SOC 2?
OnSecurity has a number of services and products that will allow your organisation to have a great security posture and ensure some strong security measures are in place.
Pentesting, vulnerability scanning and threat intelligence tools are all part of OnSecurity’s suite and could contribute to seamless auditing for your SOC 2 compliance.
Using OnSecurity as your offensive security partner will allow you to foresee and mitigate risks of data breaches that can be detrimental both to achieving SOC 2 standards and to your data management.
OnSecurity’s products and services can be accessed through our online portal, which you can access in just a few clicks here.
Improve your security practices and prevent data hacks and cyber attacks now, all whilst becoming SOC 2 compliant.
